Flowers, Chocolate and Awkwardness
by ForestFireSong
Summary: [Reigisa Valentine's Day fic] Presented with their first Valentine's Day as a "couple", Rei wasn't really sure what to do when it came to gift-giving or romance or anything really. Somehow it all worked out in the end, as it tends to work out for him and Nagisa.


**A/N: Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! This'll be my first contribution to the Reigisa fandom, and, by extension, the whole Free! fandom. I love writing these dorks ^.^ I'm not really sure what the custom is for gay and lesbian couples in Japan concerning giving each other chocolates, and from my confusion, this fic was born. Hope I didn't offend anyone. Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys! **

It had slipped up on Rei unexpectedly; he was typically completely on top of things, but somehow one thing has escaped his notice until he took one glance at the calendar and was sent spiraling into state of confusion and internal conflict.

The simple problem was the day called Valentine's day.

It was normally not a point of anguish for Rei, as he was lucky to receive chocolates from the girls in his class in any given year, and thus thought little of the occasion, leaving most of the internal agonizing for March 14th, White Day, when he would debate if he was brave enough to give_ anyone _chocolates.

However, things had changed since he had met the one person who had wonderfully and irritatingly tilted his world completely upside down-things were different since he had met Nagisa, suffered what he _thought_ had been a very well concealed crush, had had an awkward confession and was now dating, or something like that. And that had presented Rei with a problem.

He had never considered such a thing before-while he relentlessly studied theories and equations to master any given task, when it came to romance he hadn't given much thought matter, and once he did after meeting Nagisa, there appeared to be no theory for him to follow. Rei had torn through romance novels and (admittedly) magazines looking for some way to handle all the strange emotions and unexpected desires they called "love".

Ultimately, though, Rei's problem was that he wasn't sure whether or not it would be appropriate to give Nagisa anything on Valentine's day. It was universally recognized as a holiday for romance, but one for girls to give chocolates to those they liked (or giri, but that wasn't the point of the holiday). And now that he and Nagisa were officially dating-however that had happened, amongst sudden hugs and one nervous kiss from Nagisa- Rei wasn't sure how to function when they were both males.

They could both wait until White Day, of course, but Rei wondered if that would be awkward. And he _had _done some research on the matter and discovered that in Western countries Valentine's Day was for both males and females to give and receive chocolates and assorted presents. _That probably isn't justification enough though... _Having never dated anyone before, Rei didn't know the protocol on such things.

And he _did_ want to be romantic. Over the course of their relationship Rei was usually the one left red faced and stuttering from Nagisa's (intentional or not) flirting. It would be rather gratifying to show Nagisa his gentlemanly charms for once.

But he couldn't seem to come to a conclusion on the matter. And the most frustrating thing to Rei was, while he puzzled over it when he was supposed to be studying or falling asleep or anything, he doubted that Nagisa was having any of the same conflicted feelings. Somehow Nagisa, while being rather spontaneous and continually blurring the line between normal teasing and outright flirting, seemed to breeze through their relationship, and appeared to have a much better grasp on romance than Rei did.

* * *

Somewhere along the way Rei had given in and decided to do _something_ for Valentine's Day, that being buying a modest bouquet of flowers, because it had seemed sophisticated and romantic, and they were small enough to fit in his backpack. (Also partly because Rei was not ready to test his domestic capabilities when it came to making chocolates and he had read that homemade chocolates were the pinnacle of sincerity.) And not shortly after doing that Rei decided that he'd made a mistake but there was no going back now. Honestly, he was fairly certain that he had missed all the memos concerning relationships and how they worked, because everyone else seemed to know exactly what to do.

Rei had tried to act normal when he greeted Nagisa on the train, and when he ran the last stretch to school. He thought of the flowers in his backpack, and, aside from treating it with exceptionally gentle care, he didn't present them to Nagisa all the way to school.

"...and so then she threatened to dress me up as a girl again and when it's three against one you don't really take your chances, y'know? So that's why I'm not allowed in my sister's room anymore." Nagisa sighed, swinging his arms as he finished recounting his latest tussle with his older sisters. "You're so lucky you have a brother, Rei-chan."

"Well, my brother and I do have a far better relationship than you share with your sisters." Rei conceded. "But that probably is due to gender differences."

Nagisa appeared to contemplate this for a moment, as they continued to walk towards the school's entrance, before flashing Rei a smile, one of his smiles that made his heart skip a beat. Nagisa's smile really was one of the beautiful things Rei had been pursuing for most of his life, but he also knew that it concealed a devilish mind-because Nagisa could get Rei to do practically anything, and he knew it. "Hey, Rei-chan, let's hold hands."

"What?" Rei shook his head, not as flustered as would've been before, but still a taken aback by Nagisa's straightforwardness (though he should've been used to it by that point) and apparent indifference towards proclaiming their relationship for all to see. No matter how obvious Gou had said it was. "Nagisa-kun, is public affection really so necessary?"

"Aw, c'mon, it's Valentine's Day, and that's romantic, right?"

"Nonetheless, I...ah, why do I ever let you talk me into these things?" Their banter continued until they reached class, which, as usual, distracted Rei from his internal predicament, at least until his mind conveniently decided to bring it up and torture Rei with it again.

* * *

The weather was surprisingly nice for February, and so, as per the usual, the Iwatobi swim club had taken to their usual lunch spot on the roof, save for Gou, who usually ate with Chigusa-san anyway. Rei wondered briefly if there were any boys that she was going to give chocolates to-she appeared, strangely enough, to be in mutual attraction with the Samezuka's swim captain, which he knew for a fact irritated Rin to no end. He was probably going crazy with over protectiveness just imagining the possibility of Gou giving chocolates to some boy (although all the Iwatobi swim club members had received giri-choco from her).

Settling down next to Makoto-senpai and Haruka-senpai, and returning Makoto's friendly greeting Rei noticed that Nagisa was absent. He had lost track of him in the staircase, and now the blonde was late. However, Rei knew that Nagisa would turn up at some point-he had to mooch off of someone's lunch, after all-and tried to stow all of his worries to the back of his mind.

As he and Makoto talked, and Haru sniffed and blew his nose (somehow Makoto's attention had slipped while they were walking by a pond, and, as expected, Haru had promptly stripped and to no one's surprise had ended up with a cold) Rei considered asking Makoto if he and Haru ever exchanged anything on Valentine's Day, since they were practically a married couple anyway. The topic had never come up, and it was rather foolish of him to not have inquired sooner, but it was worth a shot to avoid making a fool of himself.

However, this possibility was ruined as soon as Rei was on the verge of asking because at that moment, Nagisa came bursting up the stairs and grasped Rei around the waist in a surprise hug before he had time to react.

"Nagisa-kun!" Rei exclaimed, disentangling himself from the small blonde boy while he laughed and splayed himself out comfortably. "What held you up?"

"Ah, just...something." Nagisa responded, sitting up to wave at Makoto and Haru. "Hi, Mako-chan Haru-chan! How many chocolates have you got, Mako-chan?"

The taller boy blushed slightly, averting his eyes. "... A few."

"He doesn't seem to want them, so I'm going to eat them all." Haru spoke up in his usual monotone, keeping his gaze fixed on his lunch which consisted entirely of mackerel.

"Mako-chan always gets the most chocolates." Nagisa commented to Rei, flipping his head back and grinning. Rei didn't have a hard time believing it; Makoto was by nature and sweet and friendly person, which no doubt had many girls developing crushes on him. And, well, Makoto was admittedly tall and very well built, as Rei could testify.

Makoto only laughed slightly, and, eyeing Nagisa's bag, thrown carelessly next to Rei's, said, "But wasn't that why you were held up, Nagisa? I see you've got some chocolates there." Rei turned his gaze to Nagisa's bag as well, to see that there was indeed a bag of chocolate there that wasn't from Gou.

Nagisa laughed easily, although it didn't completely meet his eyes, Rei noticed. "Yeah, it was actually...she was really nice, but she ran away before I could ask for her name, which is too bad."

For a moment, Rei tried to picture the scene in his head-a faceless girl presenting Nagisa with some homemade chocolates before dashing away. He hadn't considered if before, but he wasn't too surprised that there was at least one girl in the class who liked Nagisa, probably for all the same reasons Rei did- boundless enthusiasm, cheerfulness and openness, a smile that made him forget how to breathe...

Rei was certainly and without a doubt not jealous, not that he would stoop to petty emotions like that. Except he actually was, somewhat, no matter how irrational it might've been, since he knew that Nagisa probably accepted the girl's chocolates with the same friendly and gregarious nature he gave everyone. It probably stemmed from the fact that Rei wished that _he_ was the one giving those chocolates to Nagisa (or flowers, fill in the blanks) to be romantic and suave, and, embarrassing as it was, be the one to sweep Nagisa off his feet.

Except Nagisa was usually the one who swept Rei off _his_ feet, and it usually started with a surprise tackle hug and ended with both of them face planting to the ground.

* * *

The train was slowly darkening as the rest of the day began to bleed away, the last shards of light filtering through the train windows as the sun sunk and disappeared. Rei and Nagisa were seated side-by-side, their shoulders and knees brushing, and by some miracle, Nagisa wasn't sleeping but merely looking forward with a surprisingly thoughtful look etched on his face.

It was probably at that moment when Rei decided to just give Nagisa the flowers, because he didn't need a holiday to be romantic or show his boyfriend he loved him. It just helped, somewhat.

"...Nagisa-kun." Rei nudged his companion, breaking the blond boy out of his stupor and causing him to turn to Rei and fix him with a bright gaze. "Eh, what is it, Rei-chan?"

Rei cleared his throat, trying to figure out how to phrase it as eloquently as possible. "Ah, well, I know that Valentine's Day is one typically for lovers although traditionally we observe it in Japan as one for women to give to men chocolates….since we are now in a relationship, I wasn't sure how to deal with it, so, ah…" Rei knew that he was turning bright red as Nagisa watched him with rapt attention, looking curious and also like he was trying not to laugh. "So I got some flowers and, um...I-I know it's a holiday for chocolates, but I wasn't yet sure if I could handle making them so I-"

"Rei-chan."

Rei paused momentarily to hear what Nagisa had to say only for the blonde to out of nowhere hug him. "Nagisa-!" Rei was about to reprimand him for doing so only to notice that they were nearly to their stop and there weren't many people around them, and instead let his sentence trail away.

"You got me flowers, Rei? That's actually really romantic, that's what I would expect of you, Rei-chan!" Nagisa released Rei, smiling vibrantly. "Can I see them?"

Pushing up his glasses and trying to maintain a composed air, Rei reached into his bag and procured the small bouquet of flowers, presenting them to Nagisa who took them eagerly. "Pretty! You really are a girl, aren't you Rei-chan?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Rei responded, affronted. "Nagisa-kun-"

"Just kidding." Nagisa assured him, before averting his gaze. He suddenly looked rather shy, which was definitely strange for Nagisa. "Actually, um….I've got something for you as well, but I wasn't sure what to do with it, so…"

"Really?" Rei's interest was piqued. "What is it?"

"Just chocolate, like normal." Nagisa replied, and Rei could've sworn, in the dim light of the train, that he was red. He found this shyer version of Nagisa to be rather adorable. "Haru-chan helped me make it, he's really good with that. I wasn't sure when to give it you though, and I know that you don't really like public displays of affection, so…"

"What were you planning to do with it?"

"I was just going to eat it." Nagisa shrugged, then smiled slightly. "Haru-chan makes _really_ good chocolate! But here, have it!" He searched through his bag for a moment before presenting Rei with the chocolate.

Staring down at the gift from Nagisa he was holding, Rei thought back to all the times he had received giri chocolate on Valentine's Day. This might've been the first time he'd gotten what he thought was honmei, "true feelings" chocolate. It was almost embarrassing how emotional he felt himself getting over it. Then again, just the fact that Nagisa had went to all the work to make the chocolate- even with Haru's help- probably justified that.

"Do you like it?" Nagisa asked worriedly. Rei looked up, pushing up his glasses once again and trying to pull himself together.

"Ah, yes, I...I like it a lot. Thank you, Nagisa-kun."

"That's good." Nagisa replied with evident relief. "Hey, Rei-chan, on White Day, how about I give you flowers and you give me chocolate?"

Rei smiled. "I think we could make a tradition out of this," he said, leaning down to give Nagisa a kiss.


End file.
